At one Sheboygan, WI elementary school, the occasionally bumpy road of dual-language education has become much smoother.

The program, in its fourth year at Sheridan Elementary School, has been streamlined and improved for the 141 students who are enrolled, about half of the school’s population. A typical day is now divided by English as a second language learning in the morning and Spanish in the afternoon, and students no longer are separated according to their native language.

Those educators are the school are serious about the program, down to minutiae such as bilingual business cards identifying the Principal and Director. Eventually, two-thirds of the school’s students will be in dual language, which will be expanded to include fourth grade in 2008-09. The school has 10 dual-language teachers and three aides, plus a bilingual parent liaison. (more…)

search for : dual-language education, English as a second language

The Local Government Association is stressing the need for councils to work with the Government and local partners to improve relations between all groups of people living in any area. The LGA was responding to the newly-launched consultation on proposals for priority to be given to community cohestion in the provision of teaching English as a second language.

Hazel Harding, who chairs the LGA’s Safer Communities Board, said it was important that people who had made a long term commitment to living in Britain should benefit from resources to learn the language and she added, “It is important that councils work with government and other local partners to help improve relations between all groups of people living in the local area.” (more…)

search for : English as a second language

Beyond the language barrier, it is often said that Japanese students, accustomed to a passive learning style, find it difficult to get involved in Western-style classes where positive interaction is expected when they go to study overseas.”Our real focus here will be developing academic skills–interaction in the classroom, handling more difficult academic tasks, critical thinking,” William Gaskill, director of International Programs and the American Language Center (ALC) of UCLA Extension, said in an interview with The Daily Yomiuri when he visited here in December.

Gaskill was in Tokyo in connection with plans to open UCLA Extension’s Academic English Program here in April. The program targets high school students and graduates who wish to go to U.S. universities or those who want to gain proficiency in English for the TOEIC and TOEFL tests. (more…)

search for : proficiency in English

With China growing as a global power and Mandarin being the most widely spoken first language in the world, the lack of Chinese language teaching in American public schools is a weakness, some educators say. The problem is a lack of certified teachers. “Just as the United States has built up a huge trade deficit with China, the teacher shortage reveals America’s language deficit,” states the Christian Science Monitor. “In China, some 200 million students are studying English through programs put in place decades ago. In the U.S., the sudden attention on Mandarin has exposed a serious lack of infrastructure.” In the Quad-City region, Mandarin is taught at Rivermont Collegiate, a private school in Bettendorf, and at Muscatine (Iowa) High School. (more…)

You will probably be surprised to learn just how many employers will let their employees take a sabbatical, albeit often unpaid. According to the British Confederation of Industry, more than a third of companies in the private sector now have a policy of career breaks.

But, maybe the biggest obstacle to a career break is often money. If you are leaving your job midway through the tax year to go into unpaid work, you may be entitled to a tax rebate. You can fill in the forms at the HM Revenue & Customs site to make a claim.

One of the best ways to fund your sabbatical, and at the same time travel abroad is the ability to teach English as a foreign language. The website www.tefl.co.uk is worth a look-see before you make your travel plans. This site offers an English teaching qualification recognized across the world. A weekend course starts at £210, with the option to add a second module for £135. (more…)

Knowing more than one language is more important today than ever before. Whether it’s English, Spanish, Korean, or one of the other 6,000 languages of the world, parents are increasingly drawn to the lifelong academic, social, cultural and intellectual advantages that come with learning an additional language.

In The Bilingual Edge: Why, When, and How to Teach Your Child a Second Language (Collins 2007), Georgetown University professors Kendall King and Alison Mackey advocate second language learning and walk parents through the various considerations when thinking about adding foreign language skills to their children’s repertoires. (more…)

Elgin 1st grader Isabella Pierce spends the first 90 minutes of her school day learning vocabulary words in her native English, writing in a journal and working on calendar lessons.

Then she and her classmates at an Elgin elementary school switch rooms, teachers and languages. They repeat their lessons, this time in Spanish, while another group of 1st graders, who started the day learning in Spanish, switches to English. (more…)

Students at Ithaca College and DeWitt Middle School used the lost art of letter writing this past semester to learn about each other and from each other. English as a Second Language students at DeWitt and education students at Ithaca College formed pen pal friendships this semester that benefited both groups of students, their teachers said.

“My students were so eager to get their journal that they share with their pen pals,” said Carol Hoffman, an English as a Second Language teacher at DeWitt. “They were really excited to drink up what they were reading.” Hoffman’s class has about 20 students who speak about 10 different languages. Her students are from countries like Korea, Burma, China, Japan, Ukraine, Sweden and Russia.
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search for : English as a Second Language, English as a Second Language teacher